Friday, December 15, 2017

Cleveland Will Pay $375,000 to Victim of 2014 Police Shooting

This week, the city of Cleveland paid $370,000 in a legal settlement with Kipp Holloway, who had sued the city and the police department over accusations of excessive use of force. Sgt. Timothy Patton shot Holloway during a 2014 response to a robbery report.

As Holloway explains in his civil complaint, he met two acquaintances who gave him a ride to a nearby RTA station. Those two men were absconding from a robbery, Holloway soon realized. He ran from the car after the driver hit a fire hydrant.

Patton and Lt. Paul Baeppler caught up with Holloway in a garage, where Holloway said he was unarmed. Patton shot the man in the arm and "yanked [Holloway] up to his knees and forced the barrel of his weapon into Holloway's mouth," according to the lawsuit. ("The good news is he's alive and can talk about it," Holloway's attorney told Cleveland.com when the case was initially filed with the county.) Holloway says the two Cleveland police officers mocked his injuries afterward. He's also undergone at least three surgeries because of the shooting and has shrapnel in his chest, where the bullet ricocheted after hitting his arm. You can read the full complaint below.

During the case and through the police department's internal discipline process, it was confirmed that the city had failed in its training of Patton and Baeppler.

“The shooting of Kipp Holloway was completely unjustified. Timothy Patton shot and permanently injured a man who was surrendering and unarmed,” Terry Gilbert, one of the attorneys representing Holloway, said in a public statement this week. “Yet again an officer attempted to justify a shooting by covering his actions with a fabricated story."

Add another $375,000 to the millions of dollars paid by the city of Cleveland to cover excessive use of force settlements.